


Ellipsism

by tiesoonup



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Abduction, Abuse, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asphyxiation, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence, Bonding, Cannibalism, Cock & Ball Torture, Eventual Romance, Fisting, Fluff, Foursome - M/M/M/M, Hatred, Hospitals, Injury, Knifeplay, M/M, Masochism, Mental Health Issues, Murder, Murder Kink, Mutilation, Mystery, Nintendogs - Freeform, Omorashi, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Public Knife Sex, Sadism, Smut, Vomiting, Wound Fucking, piss drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:21:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26114860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiesoonup/pseuds/tiesoonup
Summary: It was a late spring afternoon, a hot and humid one, and a group of boys sat together in a sweaty, cramped classroom. The aircon wasn’t working, and it only added to the sense of boredom that surrounded them all. They were waiting for one of their friends to arrive, to initiate their not so important club meeting. The majority of them only really came for the snacks, and some of the others only came to watch whatever content the club members provided. They bonded over their strange attraction to the murder mystery genre, at least most of them did, and they spent their club time exploring that very concept.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Lee Seokmin | DK, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> This first and last scene of this fic will probably be the softest :)
> 
> The tags are just as bad as they sound
> 
> Enjoy ❤

It was a late spring afternoon, a hot and humid one, and a group of boys sat together in a sweaty, cramped classroom. The aircon wasn’t working, and it only added to the sense of boredom that surrounded them all. They were waiting for one of their friends to arrive, to initiate their not so important club meeting. The majority of them only really came for the snacks, and some of the others only came to watch whatever content the club members provided. They bonded over their strange attraction to the murder mystery genre, at least most of them did, and they spent their club time exploring that very concept.

Chan reached into his bag as he waited beside his club members and picked up a nice loaf of bread from it. He had brought it to today’s club meeting in the hopes that they could make sandwiches with it, but he had found a much better use for it. To cure his boredom he hoped to entertain himself briefly, which only meant turning to being an annoyance to anyone else in the room. He could’ve picked Soonyoung, the boy next to him with the strange looking hamster cheeks, but Chan knew Soonyoung was too much of an easy target. Instead, Chan glanced over at Jihoon, the shortest and angriest of the friend group. Chan’s lips curled up into a wicked smile as his brain told him to pick Jihoon as his target. So, he did exactly that. He spun the loaf in his hand a few times before throwing it straight at an unsuspecting Jihoon across the classroom.

Soonyoung’s eyes spun the classroom as he watched the loaf leave Chan’s hands to reach Jihoon’s face. He frowned as the loaf made impact with Jihoon’s right eye, and turned to Chan, “Chan, be more careful! Not only are you going to make Jihoon angry, you’re also wasting perfectly good bread.”

Jihoon shot a lethal glare from across the classroom, “It’s a little too late to be careful.” He bent down towards the floor and picked up the loaf with a plan in mind to chuck it straight back at Soonyoung and Chan. He swung to throw it, ready for revenge until he realized that the loaf was heading straight towards a clueless Minghao instead. Jihoon grimaced as Minghao wiped off stray crumbs from his forehead, and apologized, “Sorry Hao, you weren’t the intended target. It’s those two idiots I’m aiming for.”

Minghao sighed in response, playing with the loaf in one hand as his eyes remained on Jihoon. The poor loaf was now dirty and cracked, no longer able to be eaten unless you were a disgusting heathen, (or if you were Soonyoung.) Minghao leaned back in his chair and made eye contact with Jihoon as he ‘aimed’ for him.

Right as he let go of the loaf, he swerved around and instead threw it directly between Chan’s eyes with a “Oops Chan, I’m sorry. You weren’t the intended target.”

Chan had been smiling as he watched Jihoon get hit and as he watched Minghao get hit, but his smile quickly disappeared as his own loaf of bread betrayed him and hit him with such strength that poor Chan lost balance of his chair and fell backwards, toppling to the ground as he screamed, “OH GOD! OH FUCK, MINGHAO! I'M FUCKIN’ BLIND!"  
His back hit the ground, painful enough to make him gag; but Chan was dramatic and had to of course make a scene. He dramatically gagged even louder, making gross inner-throat-gurgling and choking noises. He let his saliva build up,only to choke on it and have a coughing fit on the floor.

Soonyoung was the only one who bothered to give Chan any attention. He watched Chan fall beside him and panicked, quickly jumping out of his seat and lunging onto the floor to roughly land atop Chan. He put his hand on his shoulders and gripped them, shaking him with all his strength, “STOP CHOKING, CHAN! YOU'RE TOO YOUNG TO DIE!”

The scene was loud enough to attract the attention of Wonwoo, who had been sitting quietly at the table on his phone. He was doing his best to remain focused on it as he played a game, but it was hard with how irritating Soonyoung and Chan were.

The game was Fortnite, Jun unsurprisingly had confirmed for himself as he sat beside Wonwoo and peeked at his screen. He wasn’t much for mobile games, especially not something as boring as Fortnite; but it was much better than sitting in silence and doing nothing, or then giving in to watching what looked like Soonyoung bashing Chan’s head into the ground.  
Jun rolled his eyes after a while when he had finally gotten bored enough of Wonwoo’s terrible choice in games. He stood up from where he was seated and clapped his hands, calling out to the gathered people in the classroom, “Alright, is everyone here? I think we can get this afternoon’s events started!”

As if on cue, Jeonghan then ran into the room, alongside Hansol who he was pulling into the room by the ear. “Wait, wait! We’re here!” He shouted out. Jeonghan took a seat, and only then did he finally let go of Hansol’s now red and inflamed ear.

“Ow! What the heck was that for?!” Hansol asked. He touched his ear, hissing at the pain that overwhelmed his entire lobe.

“You nearly got us fucking late, Hansol. Shut up.” Jeonghan replied. He looked at Junhui for instruction, and Junhui was staring over at the chaos still happening on the floor.

Chan was still laying on the floor, honking and wheezing while Soonyoung shook him hard enough to give him vertigo. Soonyoung thought he was doing something to help Chan with his choking, something like the Heimlich maneuver except something completely different since Soonyoung only knew what the Heimlich maneuver was from television shows, not having ever learned the actual technique. The only thing Soonyoung was accomplishing was whacking Chan's head against the hard ground. 

Seokmin, late to the meeting, entered the crowded classroom right before Soonyoung had managed to split Chan’s skull open. He had a small glass baking pan filled with slightly undercooked cookies that he had just made in his previous class. "I'm here too!!" He cheerfully said and made his way inside, cautiously stepping over the flailing Chan on the floor, and setting his baked goods down on the center table. 

The cookies were placed down on the table with a loud noise of glass hitting wood, and Wonwoo followed it with a loud groan. He had lost focus for a single moment because of Soonyoung and Chan, and had gotten killed while his eyes were away from the screen. He let out an annoyed sigh and shot a deathly glare towards the two idiots on the floor, throwing his phone down onto the table in frustration.

Chan’s skull was only saved by Seokmin.  
Soonyoung was at no time considering stopping hitting Chan’s head against the floor, but the smell of cookies Seokmin had brought in completely attracted him. "Ah, those smell so good!." He muttered while slowing his shaking until he completely stopped. In a single moment, he had completely forgotten about Chan and had immediately gotten up to take a few cookies. His eyes glittered with excitement as he smelled the cookies he had picked up before taking a bite and saying, “Seokmin, you are the best!.”

Jun watched his fellow club members with a sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose, snapping in an attempt to get everyone to focus. “Hey, hey! Grab some food quickly, and sit down please! We still have afternoon events we need to participate in.”

Jeonghan ignored Jun this time and had gotten up to go to Chan, who was laying on the floor and staring up at the ceiling in a daze,”God, Soonyoung, you probably gave poor Chan brain damage.” He helped Chan up and softly rubbed his back in comfort, picking up one of the water bottles that were alongside the snacks on the table, and giving it to Chan, “Come on Chan, take a couple sips.” 

Chan choked on the water, for real this time, and Jeonghan patted his back to help. Unlike with Soonyoung, what Jeonghan had done was actually helpful. Chan was led into the back with Jeonghan to clean his slightly scratched up face, next to where Hansol had retreated to call his sister about other school related matters. Jeonghan turned to scold Hansol about not paying attention to the club meeting as he should have been doing, but with a loud pat he had accidentally done to Chan’s back; Chan gagged, and the moment Jeonghan had turned to see what the noise was; he coughed and shot the water out directly at Jeonghan’s face.  
“Chan,” Jeonghan began as he wiped his own wet face with the towel he had cleaned Chan’s with, “I swear, do that one more time and I will never, ever help you again. Understood?” His smile was enough to make Chan feel unsettled, so he quickly responded with, “Yes, Jeonghan!”

Over by the table, Seokmin was ruffling Jihoon's hair, beaming with pride as he took a couple of the cookies. Jihoon swatted at Seokmin, sulking over his freshly ruined hair. He grabbed his cookies and peeled himself off Seokmin, choosing to take a seat instead.

Soonyoung had the same idea at the same time and took a seat as well, in front of the cookies which he stole a few more of, shoving some into his mouth and some into his pockets. His lips were covered in crumbs and cheeks were plump with all the food stuffed into them. He swallowed roughly and then turned to Jihoon, opening his mouth in a silent plea for Jihoon to feed him.

“Didn’t you grab your own cookies?” Jihoon scowled, turning away from Soonyoung and over at Jun.

Jun was still gazing at the classroom in dismay. His previous attempts to ease the boys and get their attention had been unsuccessful, and he didn’t really want to try it once more when clearly everyone was so preoccupied with their own things. It seemed that the events might have to wait until things settled, Jun thought. He instead took this time to take the chance to nab some cookies from Seokmin’s tray. He munched on them as he returned to stand at the head of the table, patiently waiting for things to settle down on their own.

“Both of you, let’s go!” Jeonghan yelled from the back of the room. He had grabbed onto Hansol’s ear again once Hansol had hung up the phone, and he was doing the same to Chan who only continued to frantically apologize to Jeonghan for what he had done. Jeonghan dragged the two to the table, letting them go only when they agreed to take a seat. Hansol sat down silently, and Chan sat down after smacking the back of Soonyoung’s head and eagerly grabbing the remaining cookies.

With the three finally sitting, only Seokmin was left up. He stood by the door for a few seconds and peeked out it, checking and making sure that no one else was left out. The group was not complete, Seokmin could tell as he looked back into the classroom, but he saw no sign of anyone else approaching the room. "Alright, shall we get started?" Seokmin finally decided to close and lock the classroom door, moving to take a seat at the table beside the others.

Now, all the present club members were finally sitting at the table. They sat silently in the rusty metal chairs that surrounded the center table. While it was supposed to be full with snacks, only a couple bottles of water remained as well as one slightly used loaf of bread and one glass pan that wasn’t filled with as many cookies it arrived with. The culprit, of course, was obviously Soonyoung who had nonstop been downing Seokmin’s snacks. “Dhese coomkies are pwetty good.” He said aloud, his words distorted because of how the compacted food in his mouth left little room for words. 

Jihoon squinted at him from his spot, twitching at the sight of Soonyoung speaking and chewing with his mouth full.“Dis meeting ish wonduhful.” He mocked Soonyoung’s speech pattern and threw a clump of trash in the hopes that Soonyoung would get the hint at how he was, (once again), pissing him off.

“Are we all ready to finally begin the meeting then?” Jun said, putting emphasis on the word finally to show just how exasperated he was. Just waiting for the boys to settle down had created creases in Jun’s forehead. From below, beside Jun but still seated, Minghao gave Jun a small pat on the back to get his attention. He gave him a thumbs up and mouthed, ‘You’re doing great.’ to offer Jun his appreciation. It wasn’t easy being in charge of the club after all, and it was even harder with this specific group of chaotic members.

“I think we’re ready,” Jeonghan added with a smile. Jun returned the smile, but then grimaced when Jeonghan’s phone suddenly began to ring. “Not so ready, I guess,” Jeonghan laughed and picked up his phone, furrowing his brow at his caller ID coming up as ‘Shua’. “Sorry, Jun. I’ll listen to the discussion on call.” 

“Yeah..yeah, sure Jeonghan.” Jun exhaled deeply. He was slightly disappointed by losing the one other person aside from Minghao he could’ve guaranteed attention from. The other members were 100% guaranteed most not going to give Jun even the slightest of attention.

Seokmin was playing with Soonyoung's hair with one hand, the other hand gesturing for Soonyoung to pass him over one of the cookies he was hoarding. Soonyoung complied, only after taking a few more to himself. Chan kicked Soonyoung below the table for taking the cookies away, and instead scooted closer to Hansol who was immersed in watching Wonwoo once again play a stupid game on his phone.

Jun looked over at Minghao one final time, raising an eyebrow and pointing to the mess of club members they had. Minghao shrugged in response. “Right, well,” Jun rolled his eyes at the help Minghao was not giving, and clapped, “Let’s get this meeting started while we can, shall we?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan takes a call outside the club room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder to read the tags and consider them warnings before reading the updates ! Thanks !

The club room was relatively quiet while jun took in numbers, wanting to make sure everyone was there, and take account of everyone who wasnt. He counted four missing, which isn’t too large of a loss, and yet he felt something was missing, as if the loss of one person could have changed something. He knew that something was wrong, given Jeonghan’s hushed murmurs from the hall, but he can’t place what. He hopes it has nothing to do with the club. 

Jeonghan held his phone to his ear, struggling to make out what joshua was saying, but ultimately he couldn’t make anything out over the stirring conversation about who could piece together who was the murderer in the last club meetings viewing of “Danganronpa” first, before they watched the rest that day, to see who got executed. 

Han stood up, slipping out of the room before anyone had noticed he had even gotten up. “Joshua, you’ll have to speak up, i can’t hear you..” 

“CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?” Joshua yelled, clearly growing frustrated at the amount of time it was taking to get his important information to Jeonghan.

“Yeah, no need to yell, jeez.. Now what is it?”

“Jeonghan, it’s about cheol..”

A bang from the hall could be heard in the club room, Jeonghan dropped his phone on the hardwood floor, drawing the attention of the club members, who switched off their show and turned to face the door, where Jeonghan stood, one hand covering his mouth while the other picked the phone back up, hanging up on joshua without saying goodbye. His eyes were wide, tears clouding his vision as he slowly entered the club room once again.

“Jeonghan..? Who was that? Are you okay?” Minghao stood up from his seat beside jun, making his way up to the door where Han stood. 

“That- that was Joshua..” Jeonghan shifted his vision, looking at each member individually, scared to try and break the news. “He said.. Seungcheol’s dead.. He killed himself..”

The Club room went silent for a moment, no one really sure what to say. Seokmin stood up, knocking his chair over, and raised an eyebrow in jeonghan’s direction. "This is some kind of joke right? He can't be serious.. this has to be some kind of sick joke."

Soonyoung shook his head in disbelief. This was a joke, right? Everyone would go to the dorm and it'd just be some big surprise dinner for them. Right? Soonyoung began to anxiously fidget, extremely stressed at these thoughts. He wanted to believe in the other options but something about the darker reality seemed a little too...true. 

Wonwoo loudly stood up in place and slammed his hands against the table."Don't you joke about that type of thing!" He coldly yelled out.

Jun shifted awkwardly at the head of the table, sticking his arms out to hopefully catch everyone’s attention. “Calm down everyone, we can’t be sure it’s true until we look.” The feeling in his stomach said otherwise, the stuffy humid atmosphere not helping the situation.

Jihoon glanced wildly around the room before snorting disbelievingly. “We’re really just going to believe this? I wouldn’t be so sure.” His smile hides the underlying fear, and he intended to keep it that way. 

“Well, if you guys don’t fucking believe me then call Shua for yourselves!” Jeonghan shouted, he was visibly shaking, his tears starting to stream down his face. 

Chan hugged Hansol, who had also started crying. Chan was strangely quiet, probably just stunned by the news. 

Seok ran his hands through his hair and began pacing the room.  
"It can't be true, he was here yesterday, he seemed perfectly fine, how could he just... kill himself..?".

Wonwoo's palms turned red from when he slammed them against the table. He balled them up into fists, only making them hotter, and took a seat once again. He wasn't too sure if he was filled with sadness or rage. Either way, he still couldn't believe it. 

Soonyoung was visually stressed, digging his nails into his scalp. "This is a joke.. It has to be! I think we should all go over and...check this out for ourselves!" Soonyoung said as he nervously laughed between his words.

Junhui lightly tapped the table, his mind racing at 80 miles per hour. “We need to check it out. I’ll be going to see if Seungcheol is alright.” He moved away from the table, gaze serious and cold.

Jihoon’s laughter died out, and he stared wide eyed at everyone around the table, gaping. “We really... have to go check..?” he asked nervously, eyes filled with fright.

Minghao reassuringly caressed jeonghans arm while he cried over the possible loss of his best friend, even though he still wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was really dead.

Seok headed to the door, throwing it open and turning to face the group. "Screw the meeting, I'm seeing what's going on. Anyone else coming?

Wonwoo stood up at the mention of going to see this with his very own eyes. "I'll go." He said as he then proceeded to turn to Soonyoung and grabbed him by the arm. "You're coming too. You wanted to see it after all." 

Soonyoung nervously swallowed, standing up with wobbly knees and wrapping his other arm tightly around his chest, trying to comfort himself. "Haha... yeah! Maybe then we can disprove all of this and just end this....uh, joke!" He grinned, very clearly hiding his fear.

Jun nodded, leading the growing party from the room. His eyes betrayed his calm demeanor, looking scared and slightly nervous. “We won’t know until we look. I’m sure everything is alright.”

Jihoon gaped openly at the ever growing amount of people leaving. “Okay! Okay, okay, I’ll go too, then... even if it isn’t true.”

“I-I’ll go...” Jeonghan was still crying, desperately trying to compose himself. If this did end up being just a big joke, he was fully prepared to murder joshua.

“I’ll go, too,” hansol scratched his arm, his chest tight as went over to Jeonghan and latched himself over the boy bringing the crying boy’s shoulder up. 

"W-wait...I'll come too..!" Seungkwan called out, following quickly behind Hansol, his legs shaking.

And with that, they all left the classroom, making their way to the dorms, an uneasy sense of dread in their hearts. 

Wonwoo dragged Soonyoung by the arm as he stormed towards Cheol's room. They entered, everything going cold. Wonwoo's grip on Soonyoung loosened as he brought his shaking arms up to his mouth. 

Soonyoung stood dead still in the hallway, His stomach churned at the sight of what was in front of him, filling his throat with dread. "N-no way..." Soonyoung stuttered as he dropped to the floor. His eyes widened as the situation became real, and simply screamed.

Seungcheol's body was hanging in the center of them room, his neck entrapped by a rope, tied and twisted up to attack to the ceiling fan, straining again the pulling weight. his lips were blue, along with the tips of his fingers. there was a horrid smell, ones that made the groups noses burn. Joshua stood in front of the body, not fully registering that the rest of the club had arrived, just watching the floor, the members reactions coming across as nothing but whitenoise. 

“W-what is it?” Jun asked nervously, noting the sudden uneasy silence. He pushed his way to the front of the small crowd, and sucked air in suddenly, tumbling back, bumping into wonwoo. 

Jihoon trembed toward the back of the group, hugging himself and scowling. He knew what the silence meant, he knew what the gasps, the scream and what the cold air meant. He hugged himself tighter, and tucks his chin to his chest, cursing under his breath.

Jeonghan walked around the boys, slowly looking up at the dead boy. He gagged, a scream trapped in his throat, he couldn’t believe it. His best friend is dead. Gone. For good. He clung to hansol, who was stilll beside him with wet eyes, and just cried into his shoulder.

Staring in awe, Minghao tried to understand why Seungcheol committed suicide. He was a bright and happy child, Minghao witnessed him growing up first hand, he never showed any signs of depression or suicidal tendencys, he was cheerful and positive even into adulthood. Why did he just leave? Just two days before he was laughing and joking with his friends, what happened? 

Joshua still refused to turn around to face the inside of the room, he simply looked up, and by his friends reactions, there was no more denying what had happened. He looked at the Jeonghan, his vision blurred by tears. The guilt of being the one to tell him his best friend was dead was, well, overwhelming to say the least. 

Seungkwan squinted hard, letting tears stream down his face shamelessly. "No!" he cried. "Why?! I-I can't...." He felt himself lose his balance. He leaned against the wall, gasping for breath through his cries, feeling like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

Seokmin stood on his tiptoes, glancing over the small group to see what happened. His eyes widened, taking in the scene inside, cheols cold limp body just hanging there. He felt the color drain from his face, his head was pounding and he could feel his heart in his throat. He did his best to stay strong, deciding it was best for atleast one of them to be properly functioning. He wrapped his arms around soonyoung, helping him up and holding him to his chest, doing his best to comfort him.

Soonyoung continued to scream, his shouts muffled by Seokmin's shirt, eventually coming to a stop after a while, his throat raw. He made a noise in discomfort and nervously looked around himself. His cheeks had now turned completely red.

Wonwoo, still in disbelief of the situation, looked over at Soonyoung in confusion. "Are you....okay?" He asked. 

Soonyoung muttered a quiet curse under his breath and fidgeted nervously with his hair. He had just shit his pants out of fear and didn't know how to confess it.

Junhui shivered, and turned back to his companions. “Alright... we’ll have to try and figure this out,” he tells his friends, not daring to glance back at their now dead friend. “We need to search his dorm and uh... his.. his body, if we can. We need to know why this happened.”

Jihoon stared openly at the scene unfolding before him, watching as the crowd grew quiet. “Are you serious? We don’t have to search his fucking body, Jun, we can get information from his dorm.” He shakes his head, beginning to walk in. “I’ll start looking.”

"Well, what are we gonna do?! We can't just leave him there!" Seungkwan yelled, pacing around. To be honest, he didn't think anyone knew what to do, and he certainly wasn't going to deal with the body.

"We're not going to leave him there, but we're in no way qualified to deal with the body ourselves either." Seokmin sighed, strutting over to the other side of the room, kneeling down beside the bed, shuffling through some drawers to find something, ANYTHING to indicate what may have led to cheol killing himself. in the drawers he found a half empty bottle of pills, the label ripped off. "guys, what about the-"  
"..."  
"do y'all smell somethin-" he turned his head to soon, raising a questioning eyebrow. 

Soonyoung began to panic, begining to think to himself, 'Do I confess I shit my pants?' He knew it was perfectly true but was too ashamed to admit it. So instead, he just laughed it off. "Haha! you're probably just smelling the corpse! is uh..  
is anyone else cold? Wonwoo can I use your jacket?" 

Wonwoo was confused but still took his jacket off and gave it to him. Soonyoung snatched it, putting it over his waist. "Haha guys... I'm just going to go outside for air!" He quickly stood up and ran out of the room.

Junhui eyed Soonyoung suspiciously, sure he wasn’t telling the truth and yet knowing he wouldn’t prod. Maybe later. Who wears jacket on their waist when they’re cold anyway? “Alright, everyone split up to search the dorm,” he says, “i’ll stay here to search Cheol and look for anything at the scene.” 

Jeonghan had huddled up on cheols bed, holding one of the boys plushies, choking back his sob’s as he stared at cheols body, meanwhile Hansol left the room for a moment, pulling out his phone and calling the police. 

Jihoon searched throughout the dorm, rummaging around and finding nearly nothing. He runs a hand through his hair, and turns to Joshua. “Have you found anything? Because i sure as hell haven’t.”

"No...I haven't..." joshua said, from the other side of the room. He still refused look at the body. He continued to search the desk drawers, in case there was anything there, but he found nothing but the usual school supplies and books.

"Well? We gotta do something! Like, did he say anything or do anything weird recently?" he asked, rambling out of nervousness.

"Not from what I can tell, From what I saw and heard he was acting completely normal." Seokmin set the bottle of pills down and hesitantly headed towards the body, carefully trying the undo the rope that was holding the boys body up. “but then again, you never know what someone maybe hiding.. what may be going on inside their head.” He kicked over a stool, climbing up and loosening the rope. Once he managed to get cheol down, he gently rested cheols body on the floor, tracing the outline the rope left with his fingers

Wonwoo was ready to use all his murder mystery video game knowledge to look at the scene. He walked up to the body on the floor and held his fingers against Cheol's. Wonwoo immediately snatched his hand away, shivering at how cold Cheol's fingers were. It began to sink in how real this was. Again, he reached out, but this time he touches cheols blue lips, his fingers traveling up, tracing his nose, then his cheeks, then his closed eyes. Wonwoo slowly pulled back cheols eyelids, expecting to just see his rolled back eyes, but what was there was so much worse. He gagged, jerking back. Where Seungcheols eyes should have been, had become the home to a large group of maggots, moving around, probably eating their way through his head.

Junhui slowly approached Cheol’s body, swallowing thickly before crouching down. He noticed a tear in Seungcheol’s shirt, as if the fabric had gotten caught in something. He mentally notes it, and rises from the body, looking at his surroundings for any other clue.

Jihoon groaned, and sat on the floor, rubbing his face with his hands. “This is impossible,” he mutters, “we aren’t finding anything that could help us. Wouldn’t he have left something?”

Jeonghan opened his eyes briefly, his face turned into a scowl. "He never mentioned anything about mental health. I would have NOTICED if something was wrong.”

Jisoo looked over at Jeonghan. "Well...I wish he did...but we can't worry about that now. We just gotta figure this out, huh..." He stopped searching for clues; if Seungcheol had left anything, he wouldn't have made a scavenger hunt. "Does anyone know where his phone or computer is? Maybe he said something online, or has something saved there?"

Jihoon got up from his spot on the floor, wiping his jeans off. “I don’t really know to be honest,” he tells Jisoo, “I’ve maybe seen him around a computer once?” He sighs, turning to look over the room one last time before moving on, searching for more evidence. 

Hansol finished his phone call with the cops. “They’ll be coming soon,” he murmurs, going to stand somewhere near the back, still trying to come to terms with the situation.

"Okay...but this is really...unexpected..." Seungkwan said, still rambling. "Like, I get that he must have had something terrible going on that we don't know about, but...he wouldn't do this...he just wouldn't...right..? he would have told us, he would have knew we were there for him"

Soonyoung came back into the room, looking more relieved. Strangely enough he had a different pair of pants on. He gave the other jacket back to Wonwoo who was crouched down next to the body. He didn't ask. He had been messing around with Cheol's ripped shirt. He lifted it up only to see Cheol's even more ripped abs. "Damn.." He muttered under his breath. As he ran his fingers over the abs, he began to notice bruises. "Signs of a struggle?" He questioned this considering it had been a suicide.

“Signs of a struggle?” Jun echoed back, taking a look around the crime scene. Indeed, some things appeared to be knocked over, as if a fight had taken place. But was Seungcheol’s death not a suicide? Jun hummed in thought, scowling.

"What do you mean?" Joshua asked, but he didn't want to go over to the body to see for himself. 

"As in, he fought with someone?" Seungkwan added. "Well, I don't know anyone who would have fought with him, and I don't think fights end like this..."

Frowning, Seok swatted wonwoo's hand away, tugging cheol’s shirt down and taking a step back. "Guys we shouldn't dig into this, just.. let the cops deal with this. they're already on their way, and if this really isn't.. just a suicide, we all could be setting ourselves up by playing around with the,, er,,, evidence. Besides, none of us are real detectives, we watch murder shows in an empty classroom after school, that's about the extent of our knowledge about this stuff. we should let it be."

"The police are corrupt." Wonwoo coldly snapped back. "This is our friend. Don't you want to know what happened? How he died?" He continued as he slowly stood up, wiping his hands on his pants. "No, I'm not a real detective. But I've played-" Wonwoo nervously stopped, clearing his throat. "I, uh, mean.. I've done my research outside the club and have enough skills to look at a crime scene. Besides, there's nothing wrong with looking into an extremely suspicious situation. What's the risk?"

"Maybe we should leave the actual investigating to the police, but...I think there's something else going on here that's probably worth looking into..." jun muttered, primarily to himself as he slowly moved away from the body.

"Well yeah, the police can do a proper investigation, but I think we have to figure out what's going on, too!" Seungkwan said, visibly getting more and more anxious. "At least one of us has to know something that would help us understand...we knew him. We know more than the police will. I don't have all the answers, and maybe none of us do, but we can figure this out together! Right?"

Seokmin huffed and started pacing again, his stress growing more as they messed around with things that could possibly get them in trouble. "You guys don't seem to get it. This is probably just a suicide and you're all just.. over complicating it because you don't want to accept the reality of the situation. None of us knew something was wrong and that he would do that, but that's no reason to start some wild goose chase in hopes of what? catching some murderer? In hopes that this is someone else fault and not ours for failing to realize what was going on with our friend?" He made his way over to Jihoon, grabbing his arm, attempting to stop him from throwing any more clothes around. "If there is a murderer, which I doubt there's not, what would you guys even do if you caught this person? politely ask him to hand himself over to the cops? I don't want you guys to get in hurt, or possibly even worse.”

Jihoon swatted and hissed at Seokmin’s grip, grumbling but complying to stop discarding clothes and other belongings everywhere. “If we did catch them, I’d beat the shit out of him! They might have killed our friend, might have killed Cheol,” Jihoon says, desperate.

“And you honestly think you'd have a chance against a MURDERER?” Seokmin retorted. Jihoon stayed quiet. That, he couldn't argue with.

Just then Chan entered into the room, a small container of brownies in hand, one already popped into his mouth. "Y'all I got some snacks from some guy downsta-" the brownie then proceeds to fall out of his mouth and down onto the floor, a look of panic on his face as he realized the brownies had more than just chocolate in them. Tossing the brownies outside the room into a flower pot beside the doorway, Chan entered the room, still unaware of the current situation. "You know what never mind, we had cookies in the classroom-. so what are you guys up to?" He faced around the dorm, seeing everyone's distraught faces, his eyes landing on Cheols body in the middle of the floor. “oh..”

Soonyoung looked at Chan to say something but was interrupted by Wonwoo, glaring at seokmin, very clearly struggling to stay calm. "Why are you trying to cover up the problem? He was your friend too, you know." Wonwoo angrily said. "Everyday cases just like this one turn cold. The police either can't find anything or are too lazy to do anything. They don't care about our friend being dead, they just see it as some other depressed kid that hung himself. Everything is right in front of us. Why can't we just look into our friend's murder? Don't you care?"

Junhui sighed, looking in to the current argument. “Of course we care, Wonu,” he says, voice tired, “We just aren’t sure if we should get into it because uh, um... “ he trails off. “If we involve ourselves in this, and it is a murder, like you’re suggesting... wouldn’t that put the rest of us in the crossfire?”

Wonwoo didn't respond, even if they did get involved, it was for their friend, and that made it worth the possible danger. 

Minghao wandered to Cheol’s “studio” area, looking for music, notes, any clues about Cheol’s potential suicide. He glanced over to cheol's bed where jeonghan had cried himself to sleep, tightly gripping one of cheol’s Teddy bears. 

there was a knock on the dorm room door, The cops were here. Hansol showed the cops into the dorm, Leading them to Cheol’s room. There stood the 11 other boys, surrounded by cheol’s disorganized belongings.  
“This him, sir?” a cop asked. Hansol nodded. “Okay then, we need you all outside the room as we investigate and do not take anything, you guys shouldn't have even touched his stuff, any of this could be potential evidence.”

No one argued, the boys just made their way outside of the room, leaving the cops to do their job.  
“Come on Josh, help me please.” Minghao asked, carrying the sleeping Jeonghan in his arms. 

"Oh, okay," Jisoo said, helping Hansol carry Jeonghan outside. He looks so serene, he thought. How can anyone sleep so peacefully during a time like this!

"So what do we do now?!" Seungkwan asked impatiently, once they were all outside. "We can't just wait and do nothing until they finish investigating!"

"No kwan, I think that's exactly what we should do. We should all just let the cops do their jobs." Seokmin sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I think for now the best thing we can do is just try to take our mind off of this until the cops are done their investigation. They'll tell us if this was more than just a suicide, but stressing and overthinking everything isn't going to help us."

Wonwoo frowned, still trying to look over at the scene. He was angry he couldn't look into the situation, but he was more angry at Seokmin, even though he knew in a way he was right, and that a college boy couldn't solve a murder... But if it could happen to a highschooler in Danganronpa then maybe it could happen in real life. Soonyoung put his arm on Wonwoo's shoulder, trying to distract him. "I'm sure the cops will do a good job at solving this-" He paused, noticing Wonwoo was just ignoring him.

Junhui ran a hand through his hair, before exiting, frowning deeply. This was a troubling case, to say the least. He ran what little evidence he had through his head, from the lack of a final note to the evidence of a struggle. Nothing added up, and all this was serving to do was give him a migraine.

Jihoon shot a desperate look to Seokmin’s retreating back, not quite sure if he could believe what he was hearing. Were they just going to give up? Would they leave this case unsolved?

Seok sighed, patting jihoons head and wrapping his arm around soonyoung's waist, rubbing his back to try and reassure him. "We can try and deal with this once the police call one of us alright..? for now we just.. we should all take a couple days, try to clear our minds." 

And with that, They all went their separate ways, desperately wanting both to know more, yet forget everything that happened that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments appreciated, and check out our TWT for art, updates, and other stuff
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/tiesoonup)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys meet up to deal with the Seungcheol situation, but someone seems to be missing

After the tragedy that had taken place days before, everyone in the club had taken a few days to them selves, trying to keep themselves together while the police found out what happened. Eventually, they called the S.V.T members and had told them the autopsy was finished and they could come see it together, THUS they all got their asses together, gathering up in front of the school, ready to make their way down to the police station together. 

"Is everyone ready?" seok asked, feeling too out of it and nervous with dread to actually look around to see for himself. 

Wonwoo hadn't been able to sleep since the day they found the body so he was frantic to see the results. He'd made up so many theories in his head and hoped one of them would come true. Soonyoung had just tried to forget his accident. Still, they were both stressed about the whole situation.

Junhui rubbed at his arms in an attempt to comfort himself, shivering at the memory of Seungcheols body, laid on the floor, maggots crawling out of his eyes. He wasn’t entirely sure what he hoped for with this case, yet he hoped it would all be resolved soon. For better or worse, he just wanted his friends to be alright again.

Jihoon stood stock still outside the dorms, face painted as blank as a canvas. His face indicated nothing, but his mind was whirring with possibilities. He didn't know what to think. His stomach growled as he blinked back to life, looking at it. He searched his pockets, looking for gum. He wasn’t hungry enough to look actual food, his stomach twisting sickly as he troed to forget the sight and smell of Cheols body.

Jeonghan was with Seokmin, and noticed a member missing. “Guys?” he said. He got a bunch of responses, some looking at him, some looking up from their phones and going, “Mhm?” “Where’s Hansol?” he asked. He had looked around when Seokmin said his words. He didn't even want to think about what another members missing could mean. 

Joshua looked around the group after hearing Jeonghan's comment. Surely all of the remaining 11 boys came to see the autopsy results, right? "Maybe...he just didn't want to come, or he had to pick up mingyu.." he suggested weakly. Obviously, no one believed his optimistic excuses. Was there something to worry about? He felt himself sweat at the thought of losing another. "W-well...we have to figure out what happened with the autopsy first...we can't let this slide... besides, ."

The second Seungkwan noticed Hansol missing, he felt a sick feeling in his stomach. What was going on? And why did his best friend have to go next? "I'm not losing Hansol," he replied firmly to Josh. "I want to find him. Now. The autopsy is important too, but I'm not letting another one of us..." He paused, not wanting to finish the sentence. He felt tears form in his eyes, and he tried to blink them away. "If anyone wants to come find him with me, come."

Sighing, seokmin ran his hand through his hair. "You're all just paranoid and overreacting. I'm sure he just slept in or something so before you all start getting your panties in a bunch, a few of us should just go get him while the rest of us go pick him up. um.. hoon, han, soon, kwan are you guys gonna come with?"

Wonwoo was curious about Hansol but was more interested in the current autopsy. His eyes were starting to slowly shut but sleep was for cowards. So instead, Soonyoung decided to go. 

"I'll go!" He cheerfully said. He didn't really think anything bad was the matter. Two of his friends can't die in the same week, right? He knew that Hansol was probably just taking a leak.

Jihoon nodded solemnly, feeling his gut wrench. He ignored his gut feeling. Shaking himself off, he moved to follow whoever was leading the way to find Hansol. “I’m sure he’s fine,” he says, “he’s always been more quiet. Chances are likely we just missed him.”

Junhui hummed at the arrangement, nodding slightly in approval. “Be careful, everyone. Stay in pairs at all times, and make sure that the people you’re with are within your line of sight.”

“Keep them safe. I don’t want anyone else going missing.” Jeonghan turns away from Josh, holding tight onto Kwan’s hand, trying to reassure the boy that his best friend was not dead, that he merely just slept in or was just late to the meeting. He smiled at the boy, gave him a quick hug, and proceeded to hold the boy’s hand for the rest of the journey.

Seungkwan took Jeonghan's hand gratefully, his own sweaty and shaking out of fear. He was affectionate, but also anxious. "Let's go," he said bluntly, dragging Jeonghan down the hall with the others following. He liked to be a leader, but he wasn't used to serious situations like this. And he knew he didn't have much authority over the group as one of the youngest. Still, he had to take initiative. He had to do everything it took for his best friend.

Minghao looked over the rest of the boys left. He looked from Jun, to Wonwoo, to Chan and to Joshua. He walked over to Joshua, afraid of what will happen. “Hyung, he isn’t dead, is he?”

Joshua stared blankly into the distance as a frown inevitably grew on his face, matching the solemn atmosphere. He watched as the other half of the group split and left, in a daze as thoughts whirld around his head. Minghao's remark broke his trance, and he turned to face his friends. "I...really hope not. But we can't jump to conclusions, okay? Let's sort this out first, please...if Hansol is...well, then we have to know the autopsy results, in case they're related..."

As the second group got to Hansols dorm room, Seok knocked on his door. "Sol? You in there?" 

there was no response. 

Frowning, he tried again, knocking harder this time. 

The door, not being fully shut, creaked open. The lights were shut off and everything was quiet. carefully, seok entered the room, ushering the other 4 boys inside. he felt his way through the room until he bumped into a lamp, switching it on, the room lit up. With the room now visible, it was very clear that hansol hadn't slept in. --

There were streaks of red on the ground leading to the bathroom, drastically contrasting against the cream colored carpet. Just from the smell, it was very clearly blood. Things were knocked over, containers and drawers were dumped out, scattered over the floor and kicked about.

The color drained from seok's face, he refused to accept what was happening. they couldn't have lost another friend. not after just losing cheol.

Soonyoung was worried about the blood. He didn't want to have an accident again but he began to feel the nerves build up. He knew it could happen again, maybe even worse. He stared at the blood silently for a second and then at the bathroom. "Ah, guys! I think he's just on his period!" He said, a hundred percent sure of what he said. "Don't periods usually happen around this age?" Soonyoung continued, because apparently no one told him only females can get periods.

Jihoon shot Soonyoung a disappointed look before shaking his head. “Did you ever pay attention in class? Guys don’t have periods, idiot.” He shot a wary glance toward the blood on the ground and then toward the closed bathroom door. His gut feeling was right, and it twisted once again. He didn’t ignore it this time.

Jeonghan took a glance at the streaks of blood, quickly looking at Kwan right after. He noticed discomfort in the boy’s eyes, so he turns him around and keeps him by Jihoon. “Stay here, Kwan, you don’t have to look,” he told him. Then, to Jihoon he said, “Keep him here, I don’t want to let him see.... Hansol, yet.... just in case.” Jeonghan walked over to the bathroom and opens the door, alsomt instantly regretting it. He screamed, backing out the door, and toppling onto the floor, the blood spreading onto his clothing and hands. The scene was horrifying, and he can’t help but to look at the, now, dead Hansol, silently crying and too afraid to move.

Inside the bathroom hansols body was slumped again the tub, as if he was dragged in and just tossed to the side as an after thought. There was a very clear dent in the side of the boys head, blood still dripping down his forehead, landing in a puddle inside the tub. Looking closer at the body, there was blood staining his shirt collar and torso. His throat was slit and there were 2 sharp stab wounds in his stomach. Shampoo and soaps were knocked onto the ground, similar to the mess outside the room.

Seungkwan wanted to follow Jeonghan's instruction. He didn't want to see Hansol dead, but at the same time, he needed to know the fate of his friend. Jeonghans scream makes it pretty clear that it isn't good. "Let me come in!" he cried out, being blocked by Jihoon.

"jeonghan..? what it is?" Seokmin made his way over to the bathroom, peaking inside. "oh dear- yup, definitely not just his period or a nose bleed-"

Soonyoung frowned, completely confused on the topic of periods. He shrugged this thought aside and peeked inside of the bathroom. Suddenly, he wished he hadn't come with this group.The sight of the body made him completely shut down. "Hhngh!" He yelped out, rapidly covering his mouth with his hands. Similarly to before, he pissed his pants out of fear. Tears welled up in his eyes as the panic started to set in. He was nauseous, anxiously covering up his crotch. He couldn't hide it this time.

His eyes quickly scanned the room, looking for something to cover himself with. Suddenly, near the dead corpse in front of him, he found a beanie. Must have been Hansol's. He felt guilty taking it but it was the only way to save himself from humiliation. Soonyoung frantically took the beanie and burst his legs through the seams to cover himself up. It looked like he was wearing a diaper, arguably worse than just having a pee stain. Soonyoung couldn't control any anxieties. It was a bad day.

Meanwhile, Jihoon did his best to guard the door to the bathroom, doing everything in his power to keep Seungkwan from going into the bathroom. He knew that neither of them would like what they’d see. He puts his hands on Seungkwan’s chest to restrict him further access to the door. “Kwan, you and I both know you’ll regret walking into that bathroom. Stop fighting.”

Seungkwan couldn't help it. He screamed out again, not following Jeonghan's orders. "He can't be dead!! Let me see! I want to see him..!!" But he didn't know whether he wanted to see or not. He knew Hansol was dead now, but he couldn't accept it. If he didn't see, he wouldn't have to accept it. But if he was really gone...he couldn't leave him without seeing him one last time. He was shaking too much to use his phone. He felt faint, and leaned against the wall to keep his balance, burying his tear-covered face in his shaking hands.

Jeonghan tried to stop screaming, blindly calling out, breathlessly, and quickly for Jihoon to keep Kwan beyond the door. “Kwan, do me two favors. One, call the police. Two, stay outside that door and DO NOT enter, please...” he manages to breathe out. He can’t see him, no, not now, not when Hansol looks like this. He’s crying, silently this time. 

Jihoon stifles a hiccup of a sob, trying to dissuade Seungkwan from the bathroom door. “Please, Kwan, please call the cops. It’s for the best, you and I know it. Please.”

“Kwan, PLEASE. Call them. Now.” Jeonghan begs, pulling out his phone and dialing Joshua's number. He's did his best to try to stifle his tears and not let Joshua hear him cry once more. The phone dings, and he knows Joshha had answered. “J-joshua.. H-he's gone.. He's dead.."

At the Police station, Jun stands watch over the crowd of boys, and noticed a drowsy Mingyu approaching the group. “Good morning, sleeping beauty. Where have you been?”

Mingyu blinks sleepily at Junhui, and notices the tense atmosphere around the dorms. “I was off doing a modeling job,” he replies easily, “I wasn’t in Korea for a little awhile. What’s going on? It’s not like someone died or something, right?” He laughed, obviously oblivious of the reason for the meeting.

Minghao walked over to the boy a little older than him, by a few months, and flicks his head. “You idiot. Someone DID fucking die, why the fuck would we be at police station?!” he yells. He’s not enraged, no, just anguished and tired. He turns to Jun and Joshua, asking them a question. “Hyungs, are they done yet? I’m getting more tired...” 

Everyone went silent, turning to face minghao, who's face that was usually bright and flawless, now had dark bags under his eyes, frown lines creasing his no longer perfect skin.

Mingyu observes the scene unfolding, paling. “I was just joking, oh my god, I didn’t think someone actually...” he trails off, sighing.

Jisoo looked at Minghao blankly, unsure how to answer. Surely they were done, but were the answers ready to be revealed? He sighed, feeling his head pulse. He was one of the more mature ones in the group, but he couldn't handle being in charge with Jeonghan in the other group-

Speaking of the devil, Joshua's phone started to ring, Josh answered, quickly greeting the elder. "Han, boy am I glad to hear from you. Mingyu just got here, so Hansol's probably on his way now, you just can head ba-" Joshua was cut off by jeonghan, relaying some far less the pleasant news. His eyes widened as Jeonghan explained the situation. "No..." he whispered, not knowing what else to say. He felt the eyes of the other boys on him, but he couldn't even convey the message to them. His head felt like it was going to explode. He closed his eyes.

Junhui approached Jisoo, brows furrowed. “Is everything alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Shua.”  
He observed the now stoic jisoo, and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “okay, okay, i don’t know what happened,” he says quietly, “but we need to at least have some closure for seungcheol. let’s get through with this, and then Josh..” he trails off, unsure of what he really wants to say. “maybe you can rest after this is all over.”

"Yeah. Rest. Answers," Josh replied sharply, his expression still blank. He looked at his friends waiting with him for the autopsy one last time, before entering the questioning room to talk to the police.

Back at Hansol's dorm, jeonghan had hung up the phone, turning to face the members with him. “Seokmin, search the bathroom for anything you can find. If you find anything, take a photo, but don’t touch it. Soon, go outside but don’t let Kwan in. Search for other things that could have lead to this. If you see something, take a photo and DON’T touch it. Hoon, don’t let Kwan in. Make sure one of you boys call the police.” he orders, a barking noise to his words.

Seungkwan kept crying, his friends' words pounding in his head. But he eventually followed instructions, grabbing his phone from his pocket. feeling so weak and helpless knowing his best friend was dead, and if he couldn't do anything to help him, at least he could help by doing what he was told. He dialed 911 with his trembling fingers, but when the police answered, all he could do was cry again. "Please...come-" he muttered, unable to continue.

"Excuse me sir, we need an address and your name please. Try to calm down, and we'll be there as soon as possible," the police said, in a calm tone that made Seungkwan angry. How could someone respond so calmly when his best friend was dead in the next room? The phone slipped from his weak hands and landed on the ground, next to a blood stain on the carpet-his best friend's blood. He didn't pick it up.

Seokmin began to search the bathroom for anything that could help them. He found a spare pipe under the sink, a bit of blood around the cracks and chips in the pipe, as if the process of cleaning it wash overly rushed. If this pipe was in fact one of the murder weapons, the murder would have been welcomed inside and allowed to use the washroom before they attacked. He took a picture of the pipe, shutting the cupboard door and continued to look for anything else. He knelt down beside the body, examining it further, there was something curled inside of the boys hand. Seokmin opened hansols hand with ease, inside was his small detective cat button, the one Jun had made everyone within the first two weeks of the club. The once pink and grey pin was now stained red, covered in the blood of the innocent boy who laid before him. Seokmin, despite the orders not to touch anything, took the button, slipping it into his pocket before standing up and moving to look in the bathtub. 

"You guys, whoever did this was one of his friends. he let them inside and they did this. It must have happened this morning, while he was getting ready to meet up with us."

Jihoon heard slight banging noises through the bathroom door, gently taking seungkwan into his arms before setting him down onto the floor. “is everything alright in there?” he shouts, hoping seokmin will hear him.

The sounds of a phone camera shutter going off caught him off guard, and he didn't know what to think until possibilities flew through his head. are jeonghan and seokmin... investigating the crime scene? he tries not to imagine it. he fails.

Pictures, Seungkwan thought. They're taking pictures. On another day, they might have been pranking Hansol by taking funny pictures of him while he slept peacefully in his bed. But there was no laughter or whispered jokes. And his friend wasn't sleeping.

Seungkwan couldn't help but picture Hansol's body laying in his room, as if he were asleep. He wanted to see him one last time, say goodbye, but he couldn't. There was nobody to see, just the body of a friend he once had, the best friend he ever had. He felt a deep heavy pain in his chest.

He curled up into a ball on the floor, placing one hand on his stomach and using the other to wipe the tears streaming down his face. He wanted to help Jeonghan and Seokmin, he wanted to ask Jihoon if they'd be okay, but for once, he lay there, silent and motionless, except for his sobbing.

Jeonghan tried to look at the of the bathroom, his vision blocked by jihoon. “Seokmin? Is everything okay? You better not be touching anything!" 

Seungkwan looked at Jihoon through watery eyes, and he was ashamed. Not because he was crying like a baby, but because he had failed to do his one task. The one thing his friends needed him to do to possibly avenge his best friend, the most important person in the world, and he couldn't. His stomach tightened more. He reached for his phone, and with a wavering voice, said the address of the dorm. "I believe we have some detectives on another case at that location. We will assess both situations as soon as possible. Please try to stay calm," the phone operator said. Stay calm? How could they expect him to stay calm in a situation like this? Seungkwan cried out, throwing his phone down the hall. It bounced unharmed, cushioned by the blood-stained carpet.

*

After some time, Joshua emerged from the questioning room, stoic but visibly disturbed. He felt sick. "Guys," he said sternly. "The autopsy said that Seungcheol...was attacked and killed. It wasn't a suicide, whoever...did that...made it look like one. But...there's not enough evidence to find any suspects yet. All they know is...it was someone else...who killed him..." He sighed, clenching his fist; he was not satisfied with the investigation. "So what now? We can't just let this go...we need more. We need to know who-" He stopped, remembering the other situation at hand. His stomach tightened at the thought of Hansol. "What are the others doing now? We have to figure this out...it can't happen again..."

“Obviously not,” says Junhui, brows furrowed. He senses something is off. “What was your call with Han about?”

Josh looked up, taking in the sight of the group, sad and tired. He felt a heavy guilt settle over him, hating that he had to give the bad news to his friends again.

Crying filled Hansol’s dorm, and at this point Jihoon can’t tell if it’s him, Seungkwan, or Jeonghan anymore. The reek of blood fills the room, and it isn’t long until they hear a knock, loud and resounding. Could be the police, Jihoon thinks. Or, worst case scenario, it’s the the rest of the gang, and Jihoon isn’t sure he can manage any more desperate wailing for Hansol to come back.

It took about two days for the hospital and cops to provide an autopsy for Hansol's death, nothing was found out that the group couldn't put together themselves. The cops, having taken the pictures seokmin took, and investigating the scene further, just decided that it was completely unrelated murder, probably by some drugged up weirdo, and decided to call it a cold case. 

The group however, still had a sinking feeling, an unnerving weight on their shoulders as they continued to believe there was something bigger going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments appreciated, and check out our TWT for art, updates, and other stuff
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/tiesoonup)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things were almost going back to normal

A week passed by, and before they knew it, they had begun to settle back into routine again. It didn’t last for long. Nothing good ever did, after all.  
It’s when the week is over that they notice, and dread settles over the club again.

Jihoon was daring enough to ask before the school day came to an end, “Hey, has anyone seen Junhui?”

Joshua's stomach dropped at Jihoon's question. The situation seemed all too familiar. They may have been able to get back into their normal routines, but not without far too often vividly remembering the horrific events that happened to two of their friends.  
"I don't know.” Joshua paused, “He should be fine, right? Where would he be..?" 

Seungkwan looked around the room, and sure enough, Junhui wasn't with the group. "Maybe he slept in or-" He stopped, remembering that they had used that exact same excuse with Hansol's absence. "Well, what are we supposed to do? We gotta find him or something!"

Seokmin scoffed, "You’re all just terribly paranoid. I literally just talked to him yesterday, I'm sure he's fine!" He wrapped his arms around Jihoon, completely confident that everything was fine despite the awful familiarity of it all.

Chan on the other hand, was not fine. His face contorted into a frown, "M-Maybe we should just go make sure..?" It was obvious that he was scared from the way his voice shook, but that had become normal after everything that had happened. It was normal to be anxious when one of your friends went missing, but it was even more normal for them to be envious when one of their friends went missing and was later found dead.

Something is off the moment school is let out and everyone seems to know. Junhui hasn’t shown up to the club meetings in the past week, and frankly, they were beginning to get worried.

“We should go check on him.” Mingyu offered in response to Chan, a weak and weary smile painting his lips. 

The club murmured amongst themselves in apprehension before finally nodding and setting off to Junhui’s dorm. When they get there, however, they notice the most peculiar thing.

“The club’s buttons?” Jihoon mutters, observing the trail throughout the halls. “Where do they lead?”

A tense iciness settles over the group, and they glance at each other.  
They shouldn’t do this, they know what will happen.

They follow the buttons, winding through the halls, and the longer they go on the more tense they become. 

Someone in the group gasps, it’s Minghao, and they all turn to look at him as he whispers, “The buttons… They’re getting bloodier.”

Silence fills the hallway and there’s a mutual understanding that they need to start moving again.

Junhui always had a ridiculous amount of buttons for the club in the event they were able to gain a new member or if an existing member had lost theirs. They were endearing little buttons, with a cute doodle of a cat on the front that accurately displayed Junhui’s personality on a button.

Aside from the buttons, Jun collected photos of the members, a homemade scrapbook of sorts. It was lopsided and falling apart, but it was dear to the founder of the club. No one ever complained, only supported his endeavor to document their good times together.

The button trail came to an end at the front door of the club room. The cat on the front of the button could no longer be seen, covered by an alarming amount of blood. Everyone held their breath, their eyes wide. Jihoon, growing impatient and unwilling to stew in his fear, gently pushed the doors open. 

The sight they were met with was a reawakening to the nightmares only two weeks earlier.

On the floor lay Junhui, dead and laying in his own blood. His neck and arms had turned purple with what appeared to be burns, most likely from a rope, of which appeared worse around his neck. Clipped to his body were his leftover pins, dripping in his blood.

Obscure drawings were drawn on the walls of the club room, crude imitations of the cat on the club’s button. 

Stapled to Junhui’s chest was a note, blood stained in multiple spots and hardly legible.

‘Where it all started…’ it read, the handwriting light and elegant.

Someone screamed, and suddenly the club came crashing down once more.

Both Joshua and Seungkwan turned away, sickened by the scene that lay ahead.  
Joshua hadn't seen Hansol's death, but as gory as it seemed when the others described it to him, this had to be far worse.  
The drawings on the wall, the letter pinned to Jun’s chest, and the pins proved that someone was out to kill the whole club. After three murders, that had already become an obvious fact, but this made it all the more blatant. 

Joshua closed his eyes tightly, trying to erase the scene that was already engraved in his mind. When he opened them again, tears streamed down his face, but not enough to wash away the horror of what he had just seen.

Seungkwan cursed under his breath, feeling tears burn at the corners of his eyes. This wasn't fair. They had gotten autopsies for the other two deaths, but it wasn't enough. There were no real answers. "Who....who would do this…?" he muttered with both anger and fear as he glared at the floor.

Chan was shaking, the image of Jun’s dead, distorted body burning behind his eyes. He turned away from the group and shielded his face as he let the tears run down his cheeks. Jun was the boy who brought them all together, the one who made them all friends.  
Chan felt his heart in his throat, his stomach, really, and desperately ran over to a trash can. He couldn’t make it to the can before, to Seokmin’s dismay as he watched Chan, he puked all over the floor.

Soonyoung panicked at the sight of Jun’s corpse, and looking around the room and spotting Chan vomiting only made him worse. Within seconds his stomach became overwhelmed and he ran to the nearest trash can to follow in Chan’s footsteps.

Wonwoo sighed, lightly patting Soonyoung on the back as his friend sorrowfully puked. His pats grew harsher on Soonyoung’s back, slowly becoming painful slaps as he was overcome by anger. "That's it!" He yelled out, "Another one of our friends is dead and you still all deny the fact that we need to take matters into our own hands. I'm tired of waiting. Is 3 dead friends not enough for you?"

Jeonghan stood by Jisoo, eyes full of pain, discomfort and most of all, grief. “This couldn’t happen,” He muttered softly, on accident, not realizing he said it out loud, “Not after the first two.” He’s silent for a while, before it all clicks. “This isn’t suicide anymore, is it? It’s murder. Someone’s after us, all of us, and we’re stepping right into the game.” But who, he thought. His eyes wandered the room at all his hopeless friends, each suffering in their own way. He looked straight at Minghao who was muttering something unintelligible to them all. It’s in Mandarin, a few words that Jeonghan could understand followed by a few he didn’t recognize. 

Minghao was too far gone at the moment. He kneeled underneath Jun’s corpse and tried to keep it together, to remain calm. But with one of his most dearest friends gone, it had become a lot harder for Minghao to do exactly that. He managed to regain his composure in only the slightest, and simply stood still.

Jihoon observed the scene with a blank stare. He heard someone scream, and he heard two people vomit somewhere not too far from him but he feels as though he’s miles away. Maybe, he thinks, if he’s far enough, he’ll be so far that maybe he doesn’t have to see this, maybe he won’t have to accept this world as routine. He shivers, and feels the start of tears forming in his eyes. The miles of distance won’t save him from the trauma anyway.

Mingyu is busy having a meltdown in his own corner of the room, near the door. Something in him wants to flee, and yet another part of him feels as though Junhui doesn’t deserve that, for his friends to flee from him even in death. He holds his breath and counts his lucky stars because at this rate, it’s too many to be coincidence, and he prays on each star, on each lucky incident. He hopes he isn’t next, and he hopes his friends aren’t next. His hopes and lucky stars are in vain.

Back at the trash cans, Chan continued to puke. Soonyoung had stopped and frowned, now feeling queasy and in too much pain from Wonwoo's slaps to continue vomiting. "Aaah...Don't take out on me.." He whimpered between shaky breaths. Wonwoo ignored him and continued to release his anger by slapping Soonyoung's back. The poor boy was probably soon to be as bruised as Jun's corpse. Wonwoo, however, was silent as he stared at the body. It was clear in his eyes that he'd continued his trend of not sleeping ever since Seungcheol died. 

"This isn't right." Seungkwan blurted out. Even in their stunned silence, the outgoing boy couldn't be quiet for long. But his words weren't meant to amuse or entertain as they often tended to be. He was angry. He still refused to look back at the horrific scene, but he gestured in the direction of Jun's body. "Someone...did this. I don't know if it was one of you, but...if it was...I don't know how to figure out who you are but...I know you won't get away with it..." Even through clenched teeth, his voice was loud and firm enough for everyone to hear. The usually sunny boy's expression was dark.

"’Kwan, you can't be serious, one of us couldn't have done this, we're all friends, why would we-" Seokmin was interrupted by the sound of Chan throwing up again, a string up nonsense coming out of his mouth as he honked and tried to breathe.

Wonwoo's brooding moment with the corpse was cut short once Seungkwan began. He finished off his slaps with a devastatingly hard one that slapped Soonyoung onto the ground face first, leaving his face just as bruised as his back. "He's right. Three deaths within a short period of time, all from the same friend group, and now cryptic messages left on the corpse that can only be understood by us? It has to be one of us, quit playing dumb." Wonwoo said, his patience having clearly ran out long ago.

Jihoon nodded slowly, turning away from Seokmin who had been giving him comfort, “Whoever did this,” he said quietly, voice flat and null of emotion. “You won’t have any mercy.”

Mingyu shivered, observing the scene from his corner. He kept his eyes on Seungkwan and Wonwoo, praying that either of them would talk long enough to keep him distracted from the crime scene sitting mere feet away from them. “We..” he hiccuped, “we need to call the police.”

"Yeah..." Joshua responded softly to Mingyu, "Let's do that." He walked away, just far enough to not be standing on the blood-stained floor, but still in visual range of the other boys, and dialed 911.

"I don't know..." Seungkwan muttered, feeling the urge to ramble again. "I don't know!" he snapped, "But...whoever did this..." He stopped, quickly realizing he had no threats. He had no way of finding the killer, nor did he have a way of dealing with them if they ever found out who it was. "Whoever did this...whoever did this..."

"Whoever did this will get what's coming to them, from the COPS. Not from a bunch of high schoolers. We should all just try to take our minds off this instead of going on some wild goose chase to find out which one of us is a psychotic murderer trying to sacrifice us all to some sort of weird made up demon.." Seokmin grabbed jihoons arm, trying to pull him back towards him. "You guys shouldn't go looking. it's not worth what the possible risk could be. Right, Chan?”

Chan nodded.

Wonwoo spotted Joshua dialing 911 and immediately ran over to him and knocked the phone out of his hand, shattering it on impact with the floor and stepping on it to break it into even finer pieces. "Alright, STOP." He yelled out, very clearly focusing on Seokmin. "The police won't do anything. Did they do anything for our other two dead friends? Or did you forget about them too? You left their corpses in the hands of lazy pig bellied scum that didn't do SHIT." He continued, quietly backing up towards the club door. He locked it and made sure to break the handle so they'd be stuck in there for quite some time. "No more cops. No more lies. No more deaths. We're all going to stay in this room and have our OWN investigation into this death. Because you know what? Everything we need to solve it is right here." Wonwoo stepped away from the now broken club door and walked towards the corpse. "Take a good look at this. At our friend. This could have been one of us. In fact, this WILL be one of us if we don't do anything. The killer is in this room among us, so why don't they just confess? Huh? Why not make it easier for the rest of us?" His tone of voice grew quieter as he left the corpse and took a seat at their usual club table. He crossed his arms and legs and glared back at all the other club members there. "The door's broken. We can't get out. Might as well fess up now.... or not. Either way we'll be stuck here all day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments appreciated, and check out our TWT for art, updates, and other stuff
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	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are stuck in the club room, oh no

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg everyone's favorite SVT fic has a new chapter :blushe:

Mingyu stared at the broken door, nearly regretting putting his faith in his friends, seeing as they were now effectively locked in the room with a CORPSE. He shivered, putting his head on his knees, attempting to block everything out. Solve Junhui’s murder? There’s no way. he couldn't even look at the body let alone try to figure out what happened. He held his stomach, the feeling that he was going to throw up getting worse.

Jihoon grunted, frustrated with the growing commotion. He scowled, flicking lightly at Seokmin’s hand that was still holding him back, before turning to the rest of the group. “Well, Wonwoo,” he starts, tone still eerily even, “You put us here. You start off the investigation.”

Wonwoo gaped, surprised by how fast Jihoon complied, having expected him to try and argue with the idea of investigating themselves.

Chan continued crying, his weeps becoming over dramatic and annoying. Seungkwan kicked him, trying to get him to shut up. 

Soonyoung was still on the floor, crawling over towards Chan and attempting to help him up, but he was too bruised from Wonwoo's slaps and couldn't even stand up himself. Instead, he used his remaining strength to drag Chan out of the vomit and to the side. "Stop crying." He muttered, even though he was one trigger away from crying like the idiot he also is. He flopped his weak arms on top of Chan to comfort him, groaning at the pain he received even from just trying to give a hug.

Jihoon blankly stared at the mess around the room, frowning. He didn’t have much energy in the first place, especially not after discovering the crime scene. He sighed, and slowly sat himself down on the floor, feeling faint and slightly sick. “How,” he starts, “do you want us to react then? Like the perfect detectives you know we aren’t?”

From his corner, Mingyu huddled into a tighter ball, as he shook his head. How could anything get done if they couldn’t work together? How could anything get done if they didn’t trust each other? He decided to not dwell on that thought, his stomach feeling tighter every second he spent outside of his happy place.

Jisoo's classmates' voices rang loudly in his head, producing a pounding headache. He wanted to call them friends but...supposedly one of them wanted them all dead. Somehow, he managed to say a few words, "How...why...are we here..?" He was supposed to be the responsible one, the role model, and sure he wasn't completely unhinged but...he was losing his composure.

Seungkwan yelled out again, for no reason. He just had to do something...he couldn't stop himself from letting out his pent up frustration. "What do we do...which one of you...JUST FESS UP ALREADY!" He stared at his friends, his eyes slightly squinted and his hands balled up into fists.

"You all are fucking crazy. I'm out of here." 

Seokmin made his way over to the window, forcing it open after some struggle. He stared down, they were on the second floor of the school, but if he aimed for a bush, he shouldn't get hurt too bad, just a couple scrapes and bruises.

Wonwoo watched the chaos unfold, slowly becoming more and more irritated at his friends. He barely noticed Seokmin from the corner of his eyes and immediately lunged towards him, knocking him down onto the floor. He struggled to his feet and broke the window just enough so it couldn't be opened. Now there were no exits in the room. They were stuck. "Ah... you're all idiots!" He grumbled. "Can we all regroup for a second and be SANE for once?"

Seokmin grit his teeth, stumbling back up to his feet. he lunged for wonwoo, grabbing him by the collar and shoving him up against the now broken window. "WHAT THE HELL WONWOO?! YOU REALIZE YOU JUST TRAPPED US IN HERE WITH A MURDERER, RIGHT? WHAT CHANCE DO YOU THINK WE STAND AGAINST THEM?!" Seokmin’s eyes were blown, his loud outburst drawing in just about everyone's attention. "YOU'RE FUCKING MENTAL IF YOU THINK WE'RE STAYING IN HERE, WE NEED TO GET OUT AND GET REAL. PROFESSIONAL. HELP. GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING PHONE, I'M CALLING THE COPS BEFORE YOU FUCK THIS UP EVEN MORE AND GET US IN EVEN MORE SHIT."

Wonwoo panicked for a cool second, not knowing what to do. But he knew one thing was for sure—he couldn't let them call anyone else and ruin this moment. He had a plan, probably. His hands stumbled into his pocket and he threw his phone down just hard enough for it to shatter on impact. "Ah! Woops. Silly me, I broke my phone.." He said with a smirk. He wanted them to think he had control over the situation but he really didn't. At least the killer wouldn't dare make a move in public. Right?

"Wonwoo.. You fucking IDIOT-" Seokmin threw Wonwoo to the ground, quickly scrambling on top of him, proceeding to punch Wonwoo, his knuckles turning red as his fists made impact with Wonwoo’s face, only stopping once his nose was bleeding. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY DO YOU WANT US TO DO THIS BY OUR SELVES SO BADLY? SO YOU CAN SOLVE IT AND BE A HERO LIKE IN ONE OF YOUR STUPID GAMES? HUH? WELL NEWS FLASH, THIS ISN'T A FUCKING GAME. THIS IS OUR LIVES- OUR FRIENDS LIVES WE'RE DEALING WITH." He heaved, putting all his weight behind his punches as he once again continued to beat wonwoo.

Jihoons eyes scanned the fight, he debated taking action and just ignoring the brawl, that was really just Seokmin beating Wonwoo, before getting up and lunging for Seokmin in an attempt to get him to stop pummeling Wonwoo. They toppled over, Jihoon ending up on the floor next to one very angry Seokmin. He sat up at the speed of light, and grabbed Seokmin’s wrist. “Keep your HEAD. We’re already in the midst of a killer and yet it seems you’re trying to become the next one. Calm down. We’ll figure this out.”

The tension in the air felt alarmingly thick, so much so that no one would dare to break it, especially not Mingyu, who was doing everything in his power to try and press himself to the wall. What has everyone come to? 

"Jihoon's right," Jisoo mumbled, not knowing how to deal with the situation. Nobody should be fighting now, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Although he really should "Please everyone...just stop..." He placed a hand on his throbbing forehead.

Seokmin shook his head rapidly, desperately trying to get out of Jihoon's grip without hurting him. He could no longer see anything, his vision too blurred from his tears to make out anything other than the smudges of colors here and there. "J-Jihoon... let go of me- please-" his once strong powerful voice was now weak and fragile, littered with cracks and sobs. "W-We... we have to get out." Eventually he gave up, going limp in Jihoon's grasp, just filling the room with sobs and random muttered pleas.

Soonyoung stood and quickly ran towards Wonwoo. He couldn't hide he was still hurt from the hits Wonwoo gave him, but Wonwoo seemed more hurt. He was bleeding afterall and probably had some broken bones. "Ah! Are you okay?!" Soonyoung yelled out, wrapping Wonwoo's head with his hands and placing it on his legs. Wonwoo mumbled something as well, but it could barely be heard. "I think....my teeth are broken..."

Wonwoo laid on the floor, absolutely still. Everything had happened so fast he couldn't even process the pain. It hurt to breathe and blink. His heart was slow even as the panic set in that he could have just died. "Hnngh...." Wonwoo tried to talk but his lungs made it too painful. "D....Don't talk shit....a..about my games... Seokmin.." He barely managed to say before letting out a pained wheeze. He assured himself things were going to be fine because this happens to protags in games...right?

Jihoon glowered at Wonwoo, and with an unceremonious slap to Wonwoo’s leg (Wonwoo flinched and grumbled), Jihoon got up, gently dragging Seokmin with him. He let go of his wrist, and if possible, his frown got deeper. “Listen. Keep your heads, alright? Junhui wouldn’t want us to act like this. If you can’t do it for yourselves, do it for him.”

"Jihoon's right..." Jisoo said again, sighing. He was thankful for the friends among him who were trying to help...or were they? Even the seemingly-innocent could be guilty...and he wouldn't know.

"You guys...are so dumb...all of you..." Seungkwan growled, glaring at the others. "Fighting and stuff...you're all gonna kill each other..." But who was he to scold them? Not only was he the second youngest, but he didn't exactly have the best voice of reason right now. Then again, did anyone? He felt tears in his eyes again.

Seokmin had curled into a ball, cradling his now busted up and bleeding hand, doing his best to soothe the pain and his sobs.

Chan stood up, body still covered in vomit "well, I guess while we're all stuck here," he went over to his backpack, opening it up, and pulling out a notebook. "we should get started-"

Mingyu nodded, reaching forward towards some ratty torn paper that had fallen from Chan’s bag.

"Don't touch those." Chan glared, ranking the papers away and tossing them back in his bag, rendering them even more torn then they were prior.

Jihoon cast a look out amongst his friends, and squinted at Chan pulling a notebook from his bag. “we should at least investigate the crime scene. Try and find something, if you do, write it down." He sighed and observed everyone else. He frowned down at Seokmin, and gave him a light pat on his head in sympathy.

Mingyu startled in his corner and began shaking his head, hair flying everywhere. “No, no, no, wait! Wait wait, do we... do we have to? I..” Mingyu trailed off, somehow paling further, “I don’t want to throw up my breakfast.”

"Yes...let's investigate," Mingyu muttered, but he didn't move, eyes glued on the pieces of paper chan had hastily stuffed back into his bag. 

Wonwoo nearly had an aneurysm when he heard them say to investigate. "That's literally what you idiots beat me up for!" He shook in Soonyoung's arms with rage, still not able to stand from the pain. 

"Wahh... Stop shaking so much!" Soonyoung yelled, slapping his face while he had it in his grip. 

Wonwoo attempted to slap him back but Chan had also stepped on his hand, making his way over to the body with his notebook in hand.

Jihoon sent a quick look of sympathy to Wonwoo, before turning back to the rest of the group. “As much as i hate to do this, we need to get to work. Does anyone have a clue as to where we should start?” He looked around, knowing Junhui would’ve known and kept some a plan somewhere, dammit. "Maybe he had something with evidence of who the killer is around here..where would he keep that..."

“Try one of the filing cabinets,” Mingyu offers weakly. “Junhui always stuffed paper in there.”

"Yes, I'll do that," Jisoo offered quickly, as the filing cabinets were on the opposite side of the room as the crime scene. The second he opened the cabinet, papers flew out onto the ground. "Alright, found some paper," he said, picking up a blank piece of paper and dropping it back down with the rest.

"I don't get it...if you're saying the killer is in this room...why do we need an investigation..?" Seungkwan muttered; even though the question was directed towards the group, he was rambling mostly to himself again. "Would whoever did this...just fess up..?! Please..?!" He sighed. "No...no, of course you wouldn't..."

Jihoon nodded at the supply of paper, then turned back to chan. “We’ll need to note down everything we see. Don’t leave any details out, and feel free to even present questions you might in relation to the crime scene.” 

Wonwoo was likely to be temporarily MIA, due to his very bruised face and the fact Jihoon took his detective role.

Mingyu rose from his perch in the corner, and began to wobble slowly toward his friends. At the very least, he thinks, he can try and help them. There isn’t much else to do anyway.

Chan stood over to the body, kneeling and running his fingers over one of the pins. He carefully grabbed it, and yanked, not even un-clipping it. 

Skin tore as he plucked off the clips, falling onto the floor in a puddle of blood and pins. He proceeded to do this multiple times, taking off about 7 pins before stopping. "These aren't even just going through his skin, some are going through his muscles-"  
chan the took the liberty to open a button and poke it into Jun’s eye 

Jihoon snatched up the notebook, ripping out a couple pages and finding a stapler, and made a makeshift notebook so they wouldn't use all of chans. he didn’t think about what else the stapler did, as there was paper stapled to Junhui's chest. In an attempt to gather evidence, he moved closer to Jun's corpse. He jotted down notes about the condition of the crime scene, about the pins attached to junhui’s skin and the cat drawings on the walls. He wrote down multiple questions ranging from “how did they obtain the pins?” to “how could they have known junhui was the start? what does the start even mean?” After collecting notes from the corpse, Jihoon moved on to the drawings on the wall, and doodles a replica in the notebook. it’s obvious that junhui’s hand didn’t draw it. So who did? He moved on further to the filing cabinets, and opened a drawer. it’s there that he finds a manila folder titled “???”. pulling it out, he scans the contents of the folder.

Reading everything over, he notices first that the documents are in Jun’s blocky, messy handwriting. Concern number one, in his eyes. Concern number two is the notes detailing the past two murders, as if Jun himself were attempting to solve them. There was a small diagram in the folder as well, showing those he trusted and those he didn’t trust, those he thought might be the murderer. Jihoon gasped in dismay at the contents of the folder, before snapping it shut. This was vital, they’d need this. He stuffs it under his notepad, and notes down “Junhui’s investigation + notes” with stars all around it. He squints at his notes, and continues searching the filing cabinets. He finds more notes, presumably Jun's before he died, but nothing else. the file pertaining to the club and the murder served to be the most alarming evidence. did junhui’s notes make him a potential threat?

Seokmin sat up, crawling over to Junhui's figure, just barely avoiding the vomit pile. He sat up beside the body, swatting Chan's hand away from juns eye button. He carefully examined the body before stopping at juns neck, letting his hands settle on the indent and slight burn. his fingers traced from his neck, down to his arms, following the path of markings. 

"Guys, these are rope burns, whoever did this, didn't want him to get away." 

"It was probably Soonyoung, he's into bondage like that-" Chan chimed in.

Mingyu kept to the side of the crime scene, looking at the floor. his focus didn't stay there for long though, as the bookcase soon grabs his attention. In particular, there’s a book with a pink and blue spine, and he pulls it out. Upon reading the title of it, he has to refrain from crying again. “Junhui's svt scrapbook.” he flips through the scrapbook, sniffling lightly. However, when he reaches the end of the scrapbook, he stops, and he very nearly screams. there was blood on the scrapbook. but how could that be? the scrapbook wasn’t near the body when they had found it, so why was there blood on some of its pages? mingyu swallowed thickly, and filed away the information for later, placing the scrapbook back on the shelf.

Wonwoo gave up on attempting to investigate and let them do what they needed to do in peace. He glanced up at Soonyoung who shot back a confused look. He whispered something in his ear for a few seconds, and the two simply nodded in silence. If the killer somehow had his hands in stopping Wonwoo from investigating, he decided he would have to take a more extreme route.

He waited patiently until they finished and they quietly proceeded to stand up. He was incredibly bruised and bloody that if he stood still one might think he was another corpse in the room. But he ignored the pain for the sake of the plan. Soonyoung followed suit, standing up and looked towards Wonwoo for affirmation. He nodded once again.

Soonyoung dashed towards the corpse, his hands shivering and eyes closed out of regret for Wonwoo had asked him to do. He picked Jun's body up, shot a sad glance at Wonwoo, and threw the corpse with all of his strength—crashing through the already broken window and towards the very sad, cold, floor outside.

Soonyoung ran towards the hole in the window and covered it, allowing Wonwoo to take action again.

Wonwoo looked deranged, unable to hold back a twisted laugh as he looked over the others. He pulled out a small blade from his pocket and pointed it at everyone inside. He squinted at them all, unable to see anyone clearly. "Alright you BASTARDS. Either the killer confesses up first or I start killing you all one by one."

"Wonwoo hyung, put the knife down-" Chan sputtered, appearing too scared to stand up and try to physically get him to drop it.

"no, Chan. he's right." 

Chan gapped, looking over confusedly at seokmin. 

Seokmin stood up slowly, brushing himself off and turned so he could face Wonwoo. "Some one has to confess, so.. it was me. I killed our friends. everything that happened up to now, Cheol, Hansol, Jun, none of it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me. Cheol's.. Cheol's was an accident. we were just fighting. I didn't mean.. I didn't mean to kill him. I accidently took it too far. accidentally strangled him, so i hung him in hopes that everyone would just let it be, just pass it off as a suicide. but no. You guys just had to look into it.” Seokmin took a deep breath, his hands were shaking, his eyes darting around the floor, taking in the puddles of blood as he tried to figure exactly how and what to say. “Hansol.. I had to make hansols look more violent. more professional. I needed something bigger to convince you guys you need to leave it to the cops. so.. so i left it to the most disposable member. The one we'd miss least. but you fuckers were so damn persistent, wanting to investigate it yourselves." 

Seokmin looked over to Soonyoung momentarily, a sad frown plastered on his face before he took another step closer to Wonwoo. The rest of the club had gone silent at this point, everyone backing up to give Wonwoo and Seokmin space, deciding that both were too crazy to try and intervene. 

"And Jun.. Jun even made a fucking “file” for these cases. he stayed late nights at the school trying to piece things together. he actually got close. too close. so, I had to dispose of him. make an image of him. an example of what would happen if you guys didn't just give up. and then Wonwoo just had to ruin everything. he had to lock us in here until we figured things out." 

Chan eyes flickered between wonwoo and seokmin, seemingly unfazed by what was happening, reaching into his bag and grabbing some of the bread he brought, taking a large bite despite the disgusting scene and smell of blood and vomit being far less than appetizing.

Seokmin took one last step forward, closing the gap between himself and wonwoo, now face to face. "Damn though, I never thought you'd take it as far as to THREATEN US? apparently you're not as good a friend as you make yourself out to be. but hey, who am I to talk, right? so, there you have it. it was me. what are you gonna do about it?"

Wonwoo glanced once again at Soonyoung. He couldn't make out his facial expression and regretted not being prepared for the moment. "Wow, we got it. That was easy, huh?" He cheerfully said as he threw the blade over to Soonyoung and clapped his hands. Soonyoung quickly moved to incapacitate Seokmin as he knocked him down to the floor and held him in position. He put the blade right against his neck and focused on it so he wouldn't make any eye contact with the others. He was a little embarrassed. "So... let's just go ahead and kill him, huh?" Wonwoo stated blankly. "Blood for blood, right?"

Jihoon’s eyes widened, and everything felt as though it were in slow motion. Soonyoung has been winding back for a fatal stab, and as a gut reaction, Jihoon lunged for him. The two went down in a screaming mess, and given what little Jihoon saw in the blur of motion, Seokmin wasn’t going to leave this unscathed. Soonyoung flailed the entire way down, and the knife in his hand caught on Seokmin’s leg, leaving a gash that thankfully wasn’t too deep. 

Once on the floor, Jihoon wrestles the knife from Soonyoung’s hands, glaring down at him all the while. “This-“ he huffs, out of breath, “THIS is NOT WHAT I MEANT when I said we should CALM DOWN.” Jihoon climbed off of Soonyoung, eyes narrowing. “I’m keeping this knife. I can’t trust any of you to hold something even for self-defense. Maybe it’s better you don’t have it at all.” Jihoon glanced at Seokmin, and frowned at him. He had fallen to the floor to inspect his cut, hands shaking. “And Seokmin, if what you say is true...” A tense silence settles over the room. “Then what do we do? Do we get rid of you? Turn you in? Question you further?” Jihoon sighed, running a hand through his hair. “What do we do with someone who’s claimed himself a murderer?” 

Chan's eyes widened, in shock of Soonyoung attacking seokmin. Honestly, he always thought soonyoung and seokmin had a thing going, but based on how fast Soonyoung was to turn on him, he was probably wrong. But then again, peer pressure is a strong force. He glanced over to Seokmin and Jihoon, Seokmin was unresponsive, his teary eyes filled with fear as he tried to speak, but only managed to sob. Chan wasn't able to tell what he was thinking, all he knew was that Seokmin was scared, and was trying to discreetly scoot backwards, away from everyone else. Chan, who had seemed completely grounded before now, not even mad that Seokmin may have killed his friends, lunged forward and toppled the jihoon to the ground, grabbing the knife. "AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WE CAN TRUST YOU ?” He quickly turned from on top of Jihoon, planting the knife in the center of Seokmin’s thigh. “THERE! NOW NO ONE HAS THE KNIFE. IF ANYONE TAKES IT OUT, HE BLEEDS TO DEATH, THERE. THAT SIMPLE.” He stood up, rather proud of his problem solving skills, while Seokmin was now in a screaming fit, clawing at the ground, his leg in excruciating pain.

"These idiots are ruining everything..." Wonwoo muttered quietly under his breath. He eyed the knife knowing perfectly well he had to get it back. It was important to him. He limped as fast as he could towards the mess that was occurring and threw himself on top of Seokmin. He pulled out the knife from his thigh and relied on Soonyoung to escape his own predicament. Soonyoung quickly did, and then dragged Wonwoo and his knife to the other side of the room.

Mingyu screamed, backing toward the door and covering his face with his hands, all the while crying again. His brain was screaming at him, and he sunk to the floor.

Jihoon groaned from his spot on the floor, rubbing at his head. Admittedly, he had a terrible headache, and he wanted to sleep. He sat up, and his eyes zeroed in on Seokmin’s stab wound, processing the screaming around him. He groggily approaches Seokmin, and Without a second thought, plants his hands on the wound and begins pushing. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs softly, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry- i’m trying to help, please let me help-“

Jihoon felt tears streaking his own cheeks, and he pushed on Seokmin’s wound. The blood on his hands didn’t make him feel any better, but he had to do something, obviously, to keep someone else from dying. “Stay with me, Seok. We can’t lose anyone else.”

Seokmin sucked in a sharp breath of air, desperately trying to calm himself. it didn't really work, the pain in his leg amplified ten fold. his sobs stuttered, barely managing to get out a few words. "H-Hoon.. wasn't me.. please.. Please believe me..please don't let me die..."" he turned to Soonyoung, eyes hurt that he had turned on him and didn't even hesitate to attack him, and then helped the person who hurt him get away.

Chan looked dumbfounded on how his plan had failed , not expecting anyone to have the guts to take out the knife.

The bloody knife Wonwoo was holding blended in with the other blood on his clothes. He was exhausted yet knew it was worth it in the long run. Everything was running smoothly. Maybe except the part where he got beat up but he knew that this was nothing compared to what all his other dead friends went through. He felt cold, and sad. He wanted to escape but he kind of made that impossible. His work in this room was done anyways. He asked Soonyoung to find a way to get them out—something he quickly did as he picked up Wonwoo and used his weight as a battering ram to make a larger hole in the already broken door. Quietly, among the chaos, Soonyoung carried Wonwoo out of the room and escaped.

Mingyu once again sat in his corner, eyes wet and breath stuttering in his chest. He didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to see this, or hear this. He wanted it to stop. He holds his breath.

Jihoon nodded silently, breathing unevenly. His one job was to keep Seokmin alive, and honestly, they’d talk about Seokmin’s “lie” later. He kept his hands firm pressed to the wound and looked around for someone to help. “Chan,” he says lowly, “you caused this. Now help FIX it.”

Chan nodded vigorously, rushing out through the hole in the door to find a phone so he could call an ambulance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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